Text-processing systems, such as search systems or email response management systems, may need to process an abundance of textual information. For example, an email response management system may need to process as many as 400,000 incoming email messages each day. These incoming email messages may relate to any number of different business scenarios or processes. For example, certain customers may submit service order requests to their service providers via email. Other customers may submit complaints or assistance requests to certain providers via email.
To effectively handle a high volume of textual information, text-processing systems must be able to analyze the information in an efficient and intelligent fashion. Many of these systems include rule-based engines that use rules to analyze textual information. Each rule typically contains a set of conditions and actions. The rule-based engines trigger certain actions when corresponding conditions are satisfied. For example, an email response management system may route an individual email to a particular person if the email contains certain keywords.
Typically, a rule designer will define and modify rules before they are utilized by a rule-based engine in a run-time system. Prior applications have provided the rule designer with various ways of defining and editing these rules. For example, certain applications allow the designer to define the rules using a long sentence or block structure. In these applications, the designer will typically enter all of the conditions and actions for the rule in a single sentence or in a series of phrases.
Other applications may utilize a graphical user interface (GUI) to present the conditions and actions of a rule side by side. In these applications, the rule designer is able to see a condition and action of the rule at the same time, and is then able to edit either the condition or action as necessary. These applications may also provide a preview area below the condition and action areas to provide the designer with a preview of the rule as it is edited.
There are other existing applications that make use of selectable elements, such as graphical tabs, in the GUI. In these applications, a user is able to view and edit different portions of a rule in a sequential fashion. For example, the user may first select a “condition” graphical tab to view and edit the conditions for the rule, and may later select an “action” graphical tab to view and edit the actions for the rule. In these applications, however, the designer is not able to view the rule conditions and actions at the same time.